The other day I overheard an HR professional talking with her colleague about an employee who had missed the deadline to file their benefits enrollment.  Her comment was, “we aren’t here to hold their hands, (explitive); they should learn to follow instructions.”  There was a time in my HR career when I would have agreed … Read more

Written on November 12, 2009 by Charlie Judy in Relationships, Theory If you’re in business, generally you sell a product or a service.  That product or service, based on a multitude of factors, is received by consumers in some experiential way.  On one end of the continuum, you have a “commodity.”  You can get it … Read more

Written on November 5, 2009 by Charlie Judy in Communication, Environment Lately I’ve had conversations with my HR peers about how different the atmosphere is in their respective offices.  Unfortunately, in this case “different” = “worse”.  Things are quieter, people are keeping their heads down, fewer people go out to lunch, haven’t seen a happy … Read more

The Wall Street Journal had a great article this morning entitled “No More Executive Bonuses.”  The author’s argument is that “the problem isn’t that they are poorly designed.  The problem is that they exist.”  Now I’m an “executive” in my company – you can read about what my bonus plan is by picking up a … Read more

Written on November 25, 2009 by Charlie Judy in Appreciation I’m tired of hearing about what’s wrong with corporate America, getting a regular inventory of all the things employers should do better, and generally watching the workforce lament over getting beaten down again and again.  Do me a favor and get over it…even if just … Read more

Written on November 18, 2009 by Charlie Judy in Career A trusted mentor of mine shared with me long ago the notion of having a Personal Board of Directors.  Would you like to know more?  If so, read on.  If not, take a long walk of a short bridge… I don’t think this blog’s audience needs … Read more

Written on October 23, 2009 by Charlie Judy in Career, HR Profession So I put a quick poll on LinkedIn the other day – “Are HR Execs CEO Material?”  We had 65 responses in the last week…not great, but ok for somewhat of a statistical sample.  It also generated some good dialogue in some of the Groups … Read more

Written on October 22, 2009 by Charlie Judy in Compensation So I have this idea about how we set base compensation every year – I’ve floated it in front of Execs and HR pros alike.  More often than not, my idea is met with some question about how much crack I smoked before I came … Read more

Written on October 29, 2009 by Charlie Judy in Career, HR Profession My four-year old some times tells me she wants to play, but “not a game that’s about winning.”  I can understand that – sometimes the prospect of losing is just too much.  I played the most competitive of sports in High School – … Read more

Written on October 19, 2009 by Charlie Judy in Performance Management The Street had an interesting blog post the beginning of this month re: the efficacy of HR’s focus on “Employee Satisfaction”.  Known in HR circles now as “Employee Engagement” (which has unfortunately become just a fluffed up version of Employee Satisfaction in many organizations), the argument is … Read more